Fat Tuesday: Metro Detroit Goes Crazy For Paczki

The line to buy paczki on Fat Tuesday wraps around the building at New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck. (WWJ Photo/Mike Campbell)

HAMTRAMCK (WWJ) – It’s an unofficial holiday for many in the metro Detroit area: Fat Tuesday, also known as Paczki Day.

A Polish-American tradition, several celebrate on Fat Tuesday — the day before Lent begins — by gorging on paczki, which are calorie-laden, deep-fried pastries filled with the most delicious creams, custards and jellies.

Traditionally, the reason for making paczki (pronounced “pooonch-key”) was to use up all the lard, sugar, eggs and fruit in the house, because the ingredients were forbidden to be consumed due to Catholic fasting practices during Lent, according to Michigan.org.

Paczki (credit: Thinkstock)

The tradition has evolved over the years and now, come Fat Tuesday, Americans rush out to get the tastiest paczki they can find. Ask any metro Detroiter and they’ll tell you, the best place to go for pazcki is Hamtramck.

That’s where WWJ’s Mike Campbell found Denise Star, an executive at Compuware, standing in line at the New Palace Bakery to buy a whopping 19 dozen paczki for her office.

“I’ve been doing this for 24 years straight and I take them to the employees I work with,” she said.